Don't cut the 'bald' ones off, whatever you do :) Please do let us know your growing conditions - little can be said to help without that info. I'm glad to see people growing these awesome dendrobiums though for sure If the leaves are sticky, something is likely wrong - wipe down/spray with the anti-pest treatment of your choice just to be sure. These dends like other dends are somewhat susceptible to a thrip-like disease, which I have yet to identify for sure. Small black pellets, white streaking and tiny black/brown crawling insects are tell tale signs. I grow two cruentum primary hybrids and a few hybrids with 25-50% cruentum parentage, and I have an inkling that the hybrids are more robust than the species, although I'm not 100% sure. All the cruentums I've seen in real life look pretty ratty and nasty, but the primaries (green lantern, dawn maree, peng seng) and other hybrids (Lori's star, frosty dawn etc..) are much taller, fuller, with nice leaves and strong canes. But hey, who knows...I suspect some sort of pest infection combined with lack of light and musty potty material. In terms of my conditions (which may or may not apply to you!), I grow my dawn maree (cruentum x formosum) in window that gets direct morning sun, it's potted in coconut husk and is essentially root bound. It gets watered within 1-2 days of being dry during the growing season (now) but gets less water in the winter. Nearly killed my Lori's Star (Dawn Maree x Lori Tokunaga (cruentum x infundibulum) by A) watering too much when it didn't want water, and B) not watering it at all when it DID want water. As a result, it lost ALL it's leaves. Nearly chucked the thing, but saw three new growths this season, so it is now right next to Dawn Maree and is recovering (kind of). Just a note on repotting: If your plant has a new cane developing, it is risky to repot because you are disturbing all the new roots that are growing into your medium, even if the medium sucks. In my limited experience, I've found that the best time is to wait for the first emergence of a new growth, BEFORE roots come popping out. You will see a black furry nub at the base of the old canes. I waited too long for the aforementioned plant (ie roots were coming out already), and hence the 'kind of' recovery - the darn thing has been sulking. I predict the canes will be small and stunted this season, and I'll probably have to wait till next year for any sort of hope of blooms. If your new cane is smaller than the previous canes, your plant is likely not a happy camper. And if it has no new growth at all, then water VERY sparingly...(a mistake I made - I foolishly thought "Maybe more water will wake it up!"...learn from my failures!) It will wake up when it wants to and then you can do your thing. Oh yeah, and sphag is BAD for these guys fyi!! Others - Peng Seng (cruentum x tobaense) is under T5s, but gets similar watering and is happy. Frosty Dawn (Dawn Maree x Lime Frost (cruentum x scrabilingue) lives right next to it. Both potted in course coconut with charcoal and expanded clay pellets (quite airy) Dend tobaense (close relative) is not too happy - leaves are looking like they want to drop. It is potted in a finer mix of bark with sphag on top (vendor's choice and I neglected to repot)...I spied a new growth coming along yesterday and will likely repot this weekend before the growth starts making new roots. Hope that helps - these are awesome plants and I can't wait to get a green lantern. H&R orchids grow these fabulously and are responsible for most of the hybrids out there...they are visiting my OS this summer and I'll have to exercise some severe self control. -calvin

Tony, My two cents: my Meyer lemon sets about a quarter of the fruit that begin to develop during the winter months. It has about 15 now that have set since November when it started flowering. It gets direct west sunlight here in Connecticut. While all my other citrus that have fruited to date have also set fruit during the winter, I have Key lime that never seems to set fruit during the winter despite flowering profusely. It sets fruit as soon as I put it outside in late May. So, it is possible your Lemon will do the same. I am a bit worried about the large leaves you describe: they are, in my experience, a symptom of too little light. You say you have the plant under a grow light. What kind? the old florescent bulb-style and the flood-style grow bulbs probably are not really adequate for a ten year old citrus. If you have window with a southern or western exposure, that gets direct sunlight, I would move the citrus to that location. Hope this helps, Don

amyms, the granite is Maron Cohona and it might go by Antique brown as well depending on the country of origin. I love the fissures and cracks that are an inherent part of this granite but many people who see it don't. I would highly recommend that you ask to see the slab horizontally before you purchase it. The sink is Blanco's silgranite in anthracite. eks6426, we're in north western Illinois. AYR did do our cabinets. If you need recommendations, I can absolutely, definitely give them the highest of high praises. I am picky and I'm sure I'm hard to work with/for but I got everything I asked for without a single "it can't be done". FABULOUS people. And for those further away, they do ship worldwide. Stonegirl, thanks for all the advice. The guys just left. Here's what I found out. The sink was installed with JUST CAULK and those wooden brackets. When the guys were here there was quite a bit of back and forth over what to do and a few phone calls to the shop. Turns out there WERE keyholes cut for the bolts needed for installation and the original installers didn't use them for whatever reason. So now I have the sink glued in place with silicone AND bracketed there with clips. They had to cut 4x14" pieces from the side of the cabinet to get to the bolts as the sink is a VERY tight fit in the cabinet. Fortunately neither side is visible as the sink is in between a draw stack and the dishwasher. I had them check the prep sink, which was bolted in place - go figure - and the bar which they said was absolutely secure. Here are some shots of what they did. If you can, would you tell me if this is secure, in your opinion only, of course. I mean, I look at it and see the CORNERS of 4 small clips suspending this sink which could potentially weigh over 300 pounds when filled with water. Thanks again for all your help

You need to realize that there is a lot of "conventional" wisdom on this board that will offer the standard answer. Nothing wrong with that but sometimes you need to go further. I think you should see where the flange of the sink rests before you try and have someone in to re-do or demand your money back. We have a very tight clearance with our sink cabinet and sink. The flange on our sink actually rests on the cabinet frame. No room for clips. They then used silicone adhesive. That sink is going nowhere. So before you go further, just take a look and see where the flange is and if it is resting on the base. Just an aside about silicone adhesive. We had a 32 inch round table top cut from the same slab as our counter to use as a top on a cast iron french bistro base. I asked the installers if I should drill the top, insert threaded studs and then screw the base to the top. They said, skip the effort and just silicone the table top to the base. I was leery about this but it works and i can pick the top up and the base goes right with it and it weighs about 50 lbs. I even picked the table up and held it with the base perpendicular to the floor. Held like a charm. No movement. This is the most abuse that table is going to get over it's lifetime so I have no fears of that granite top coming off.